Location: Petite Piton, St Lucia
As I woke up this morning to Celia shaking me, I remembered that we were no longer on a dock and that our anchor (mooring) watch was again happening. Sadly, the sun had already risen, so there were no colorful clouds around the mountains, and it was bright out, and the day was ready to begin. I spent my watch listening to music and watching Brahm swim lonesomely to shore as no one accompanied him on his morning swim/walk. Once he came back, it was getting close to 7, so I made my way down into the salon to play some wake-up music. Henry was already awake and preparing a breakfast of fruit loops, yogurt and granola, and some fruit. Once all the crew was awake and ready to eat, we mustered in the cockpit to start the day. After breakfast and clean up, the first dive group started to set up their dive kits as there was a scheduled fun dive with a local guide planed for today at 9. At 9:30, however, we learned that the locals took “island time” to heart as they had still not shown up, and they finally got to the ship around 10 minutes later. We were greeted by the head of the marine park area, and dive guide named Peter, and another named Devin, and quickly lowered our dive gear into their boat and set off. This was the first dive we have done with a local guide, and it was nice to just have to follow him and not worry about where we were. The dive was especially cool because the seafloor sloped off by a lot, and it just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Henry was my dive partner, and we had some good laughs underwater as our air cylinders were equally low compared to other peoples. Once our dive was finished and the dive groups switched, I joined the chef squad in the salon and played some music on the radio for everyone. Also, during this time, I decided to shave part of my goatee and make it a handlebar mustache to make some people laugh, which was a great success. When the second dive group got back, I went on deck to help bring up their dive gear, and everyone gave me a good reaction, especially Devin and Peter, who found it very funny. They made breakfast burritos which may sound familiar because it was the same lunch as last time I was skipper. No harm, though, because they were scrumptious, same as last time. Following lunch, half of the crew was working on more practice problems for Navmaster using set and drift to find our new course to steer. Liam and I were paired together to work on the chart together, which was quite comical as any activity involving Liam. Once all of us were done with the problems, the crew switched, and the other half started with theirs while the rest of us went for a snorkel to work on our oceanography group projects. After I showered off, there were a couple of people on deck hanging out under the tarp, and I joined them until dinner. Right before dinner, we got another visit from Devin and Peter, who came by, and when they saw me on deck, Devin called out, “Hey, it’s the boy with the cowboy mustache,” and everyone got a good laugh out of that especially Peter. Henry and his chef squad once again made lasagna, but this time, we had ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese which some of us agreed that the cottage cheese was better, still equally as good, just the fact that the cottage cheese lived up to the hype. Now we are about to start our rescue diver knowledge reviews so we can begin our next certification status. Happy hump day to all the families out there reading this blog.
Love you, Mom and Dad, and especially Aidan hope you’re surviving without me.
Photo 1: Reef shot with fish
Photo 2: Reef Shot with close up fish
Photo 3: Reef Shot with Sponge
Photo 4: Dive group 1 with Devin
Photo 5: Noah being a great gopher
Photo 6: My new handlebar mustache (disliked by all the girls, loved by all the guys)
Photo 7: Navmaster practice
Photo 8: Dive kits
Photo 9: The tour guides arriving
Photo 10: Ash struggling to get back on the boat
Photo 11:A little better
Photo 12: Look, he’s doing it!
Photo 12: OMG, he made it!!!
Photo 13: Dive group 1 returning to Ocean Star
Photo 14: Chef squad (Addisen professionally cutting green peppers)
Photo 15: The Petite Piton
Photo 16: Henry doing a majestic backflip over the sun
Photo 17: Sam and Ash on their snorkel
Photo 18: Meg and Katie returning from their data collecting
Photo 19: #watchtans
Photo 20: Meg collecting data
Photo 21: Keaton (she should learn to tuck her depth gauge into her cumber bun)
Photo 22: Celia, Keaton, and Sam on dive group 2
Photo 23: Erin, Celia, and Keaton after their dive